TRANSFORMING SCHOOLS WITH TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE

1 TRAUMA-INFORMED CARETRANSFORMING SCHOOLS WITH No school is immune to the effects of student trauma. By implementing schoolwide trauma-sensitive programs, you can help students be that much more KATY O GRADYR esearch on trauma is eye-opening it affects children s brain development, behavior and health for the rest of their lives. Behind the trauma are the adverse childhood experiences students endure, including physical or verbal abuse, divorced or imprisoned parents, neglect, exposure to substance abuse and more. In SCHOOLS , trauma surfaces when students struggle to behave and learn due to difficul-ties with concentration, memory, organization and language. TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE 9 TRANSFORMING SCHOOLS WITH 10 ASCA SCHOOL COUNSELOR | JANUARY FEBRUARY 2017get further faster without showdowns that are created by taking behavior personally.

2 Building students connection to school is another vital component of TRAUMA-INFORMED care. Pringle s school makes sure struggling students are connected to something here besides just coming to school every day, she said. This may mean working to engage a student in one of Hoover s four academies, which create more of a family; they ll go through their schooling with some of the same kids, and the academy directors work with the school counselors and keep track of kids who are not doing quite as well, so there are extra eyes, Pringle said. Lallier s elementary school staff and faculty have also focused on increas-ing students sense of belonging as they introduced TRAUMA-INFORMED care. Their program aimed to help teachers as more and more students arrived with a history of trauma.

3 Lallier began sharing infor-mation in staff meetings and individual conversations about the impact of trauma and how the brain works. Self-regulation was a particular problem with Dothan Brook s youngest students, so the school assembled an advisory council geared toward that age group s needs. This led to staff learning more about trauma, devel-opment and attachment and sending a team to an intensive, four-day trauma program in summer Restorative JusticeIn 2014, Hoover High School staff began looking at suspension numbers; to learn math unless they can self-regulate and feel safe in school and not be retrig-gered by our reaction to their behavior. Moving Toward Trauma-InformedAt Holden and Eddington Elementary SCHOOLS in the Bangor, Maine, area, school counselor Elena Perello started working with students two years ago about growth vs.

4 Fixed mindsets and per-severance. Both SCHOOLS have established positive behavioral interventions and sup-ports (PBIS) programs that readily incor-porate TRAUMA-INFORMED care. In 2016, Perello and her superintendent gave a presentation about trauma to all staff members, with small group work around strategies for the classroom. Perello has found that when one or two teachers begin using resources she suggests, such as mind breaks or breathing exercises, other teachers become interested. They will hear, Oh, it really helps my kids calm down and focus before we start math, and before you know it, it s all up and down the hall, she s partnership with her super-intendent points to the central role of administrators in establishing a school as TRAUMA-INFORMED .

5 TRAUMA-INFORMED care needs to start with the school leader, letting all staff know this is going to be a focus throughout all the grades, Pringle said. Administrators can also make sure train-ing takes place for school counselors, teachers and all staff. Austin sees the role of administrators as providing the big picture, to set a tone that we might No classroom is immune to the effects of trauma. Yes, abuse causes trauma, but any divorce, any grief, any verbal abuse, those kinds of things exist, no mat-ter what race, income or poverty level, said Tawnya Pringle, school counselor at Hoover High School in San Diego, understanding of trauma s impact grows, school leaders across the country are assessing their discipline methods and moving to a TRAUMA-INFORMED (also called trauma-sensitive) approach, which offers new techniques to help students succeed.

6 Pringle describes TRAUMA-INFORMED care as a cultural shift in how we look at behavior with students with trauma, SCHOOLS are often the one place that isn t chaotic. We can t assume that the bell ringing is going to instantly shift them into a mental state where they can take in new information and make meaning of it, said Joe Austin, the principal at Hoover High School. We ve got to create practices and build a climate in our classrooms so kids have a chance to feel safe, to feel heard. According to the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative ( ), trauma-sensitive SCHOOLS have six core attributes: Shared understanding among all staff; a whole-school approach to trauma sensitivity Safety for all children physical, social/emotional and academic In addressing students needs, con-sideration of their relationships, self-regulation, academic competence and physical and emotional well-being Connection of students to the school community and opportunities to prac-tice new skills Embraced teamwork and shared staff responsibility for all students Leaders and staff members anticipa-tion of and adaptation to students ever-changing needs This is best practice now, said Rebecca Lallier, school counselor at the pre-K 5 Dothan Brook School in White River Junction, Vt.

7 , a 2016 RAMP School of Distinction. She believes trauma train-ing is needed for experienced teachers and as a component of teaching and school counseling programs. People can t say, No, I teach math. Students are not going As understanding of trauma s impact grows, school leaders across the country are assessing their discipline methods and moving to a TRAUMA-INFORMED approach that offers new techniques to help students kids can focus in class and work through challenging problems in math or in life they need to be taught how to manage emotions, face frustration with patience and determination, and seek help when needed. Our research-based approach to teaching social-emotional skills is the top choice among educators for its simplicity, effectiveness, and appeal. The Second Step program gives kids the foundation to learn and live out how: m pa t math curriculum is missing a ASCA SCHOOL COUNSELOR | JANUARY FEBRUARY 2017periods of the class are full.

8 It s the most exciting change I ve witnessed, Austin said. Talk about transferrable skills. If I could send kids out into the adult world as conflict resolution agents of change? That is the kind of an impact that is a big deal. In Alexandria, Va., Nellie Hauchman hopes restorative circles will also prove beneficial at Carl Sandburg Middle School, where she is the school coun-selor for English learners. The RAMP school has high numbers of students who are recent arrivals to the United States, primarily from Central American coun-tries. Many have experienced tremendous trauma, such as seeing family members murdered or tortured. They ve taken long journeys on foot from their home countries, been abused sexually and phys-ically on their journeys and endured sepa-ration from families for extended periods of time, Hauchman said.

9 After attend-ing a session on restorative circles, she concluded Sandburg could benefit from the practice. She believes listening the core of the circle concept and support could, for many of her students, provide the empowerment to help them through their difficult transition. Hauchman s school does not yet have a TRAUMA-INFORMED program, but one is in place on the other side of the county at Herndon Middle School, where the stu-dent population is similar to Sandburg s. Meghan Azzara is a school counselor at Herndon, where parental involvement and community partnerships are essential to her work with immigrant students. The school offers separate support groups for boys and girls who are recently reuni-fied with family members or new to the country.

10 Azzara and her colleagues also provide evening programs for parents, to help acclimate them to SCHOOLS , the services offered and how to navigate the school system and support their children. She credits parents for recognizing their children have experienced traumas with-out the parents support. A lot of times the parents are calling us requesting the meetings, she said. Changes Beyond BehaviorChanging the school s approach to trau-ma certainly resolves student behavior issues, but it also has other benefits. the student population of 2,000 received between 300 and 400 suspensions. However, neither suspension nor loss of privileges seemed to be having any tan-gible impact on student behavior. The district began training all staff about TRAUMA-INFORMED care and the impact of adverse childhood experiences on the brain, learning and behavior.